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The Best John Travolta Movie Dance Scenes

I’m pretty convinced that John Travolta has a clause in every movie contract that says you must give him a certain amount of on-screen dance time. And since not all of his movies include dance scenes, there must be an addendum stating that every movie set must at least have a designated dancing area so he can get his groove on after the director yells “cut.”

Both of these theories are based on varying levels of wild speculation, of course, but at least this much is true: the man loves to dance. And with our recent release of Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete Series and classic clips like the one below, we couldn’t help but want to watch the greatest John Travolta dance scenes throughout his storied, five-decade film career.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n13mlWPB6OU]But as we established, there’s a $#!+load of John Travolta dance scenes out there, so which are the best? We painstakingly combed through hours of footage and asked some of our most Travolta-versed employees (Travoltians, if you will) to come up with the following list of the 7 Greatest Travolta Movie Dances Ever. Let the dance-off begin!!

7. Hairspray

Think putting Travolta in a bunch of makeup and a generous helping of extra prosthetic pounds will slow down his ability to shake a leg? Think again. Throw in some Christopher Walken and you’ve got yourself a classic.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpiUk_EDZy0]

6. Michael

Once again proving that you can’t tame a lifetime of good dance moves with a few extra appendages (well, maybe with two left feet), John Travolta does everything but fly out of frame with his angel wings in this scene from Michael. You can’t actually see the wings under his jacket, but my point is still super-valid.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glz1OfXbc_0]

5. Urban Cowboy

Nobody can claim to be a truly great dancer if they don’t display some versatility — that means some good, old-fashioned country dancing!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arJ5lAE-k3Q]

4. Staying Alive

I was going to write something clever to go with this drenched-in-1980s clip, but it speaks volumes on its own. You owe it to yourself to just press play and soak it all in.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xrOzaUvgao]

3. Grease

You better shape up, ’cause we need some dance. And our hearts are set on John Travolta.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK63eUyk-iM]

2. Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction made us sad to think of all the sociopathic gangsters out there who could be blessing us with their trophy-worthy twisting skills.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSLMN6g_Od4]

1. Saturday Night Fever

It’s the movie that started it all. In fact, after watching this clip, I take back what I said in the first paragraph: it’s not that Travolta insists on a dancing clause in his contracts, it’s that after Saturday Night Fever, every movie studio made himpromise to dance in their films. I had it all turned around.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUID0jSh2Ic]

What’s your favorite John Travolta dancing moment? Tell us in the comments!